There are a variety of containers used to transport clinical specimens to a laboratory for testing and examination for various microorganisms or viruses. For instance, sputum is collected and transported in a variety of containers specifically designed to collect sputum. Body fluids, pus, etc., are commonly obtained with hypodermic needles and syringes, and are simply transported to the laboratory in the same syringe in which the specimen was collected. Some of the specimen transport containers serve a dual function in that the container itself is used in obtaining the specimen and/or has some contained means to initially operate on, preserve or otherwise maintain the specimen.
Of specific note is a popular swabbing system for collecting, preserving and transporting a culture sample, and commonly sold under the trademark CULTURETTE (Avery, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,450,129). This self-contained swabbing unit includes a cotton-tipped swab which is used to collect the culture sample, a flexible plastic tube within which the swab is stored before use and replaced for transport, and a frangible glass ampul filled with a culture preserving liquid. After a culture has been collected on the swab, the swab is replaced in the tube and the latter is squeezed adjacent the ampul to break the ampul and release the preserving liquid which moistens the swab and keeps the collected culture sample in live condition until laboratory tests have been performed.
In comparison to these dual-function containers which are generally designed to facilitate collection, handling, transport and preservation of the clinical specimens, tissues of various organs, bones, cartilidge, etc. obtained by surgical procedures are collected and transported to the laboratory in what can be best described as an ad hoc basis. That is, the tissue sample once obtained is typically placed in a handy container which is not altogether unsuited for collection and transport of the tissue sample, but is not specifically adapted to facilitate handling, transport and preservation of these types of tissue samples. For instance, the tissue sample simply may be placed in a CULTURETTE container to thereby maintain the tissue sample in a moist environment during transport, or the sample may be deposited in any closable container with some physiological fluid added thereto to keep the sample moist. It will be recognized that the tissue sample should ideally be kept in a moist, reducing environment to maintain microorganisms, especially anaerobic bacteria, in a viable state during the period of minutes to hours between the time the tissue is collected and the time it is processed in the laboratory. A satisfactory reducing liquid environment would be Modified Stuart' s Bacterial Transport Medium containing a chemical such as thioglycolate, which serves to reduce the amount of molecular oxygen present in the liquid environment.
Difficulties and inconveniences arise when the tissue sample is transported to the laboratory for processing in an ad hoc container. First, the tissue must be ground or minced so that any microorganisms in the more central portions of the tissue will be released. To grind the sample, it must be first removed from the ad hoc transporting container and placed into a grinder, which can be either the classic mortar and pestle type or of the glass-walled type with a central, relatively close fitting internal plunger. The act of moving the tissue from the transporting container to the grinder is time consuming and inconvenient for the lab technician inasmuch as sterile forceps must be used; this is only exacerbated if the tissue must be retrieved from a long tube, such as a CULTURETTE container. In addition, the various parts of the tissue grinding apparatus must be sterile to prevent contamination of the tissue specimen.
There are also additional disadvantages in the current ad hoc system for handling, transporting, preserving and processing tissue samples. One is that of inadvertent contamination of the tissue specimen. It is a working rule of microbiology that each step in handling a specimen outside of a sterile environment can cause the contamination of the tissue. Thus, there is a small but real chance the tissue can be contaminated in transfer from the transport container to the grinding device, or by the grinding device itself.
Another disadvantage derives from the very time consuming and meticulous nature of the grinding procedure. In large, busy microbiological laboratories, the extra time required to grind tissues can be quite significant.
In view of these noted difficulties, it would be far more desirable if the tissue sample could be transported in a container specifically adapted to the handling, transport and preservation of such tissue samples; moreover, it would be ideal if the tissue sample could be ground in the transportation container itself, thereby permitting immediate testing of the specimen upon removal at the laboratory.